Pages

Friday, 6 May 2011

Double Fat Jack - the tutorial

In a fit of royal fervour last week, I made a Double Fat Jack from a couple of the FQs in my "Unafraid of Colour" bundle from Sew Fresh Fabrics. Double Fat Jack is a 22" X 29" union jack quilt block made using two FQs and a little bit of neutral yardage. I'd love to see any versions you make on my Flickr page. Please ask any questions you have here in the comments, by email (link in the sidebar) or on my Flickr page.

1. Choose two Fat Quarters for each flag: one for the background triangles (usually blue on our flag) and one for the thick strips (usually red on our flag). You will also need six 1" WOF strips of a neutral fabric for the skinny strips. If you want to add a 2" border all round (this would be a good move if you were making a whole quilt of these and wanted to Quilt As You Go or just to frame the flag), you will need another three 2 1/2" WOF strips of the neutral per flag.

2. Trim the triangle fabric to 22" X 18" or as near as you can get to that depending on the cut of the FQ. Don't panic if your FQs don't give you a rectangle of this exact measurement, you just ideally want to make sure that you keep a note of the size of the rectangle if you are making a whole flag of these so that the finished flag comes out the same size in each block. Then cut it into quarters, each one being 11" X 9".

3. READ THIS STEP CAREFULLY to ensure that you have four triangles cut from top left to bottom right and four from top right to bottom left. Place the four rectangles in a neat pile with two facing right side up and two facing right side down and cut them along a diagonal to yield 8 triangles.

4. Sew the neutral 1" skinny strips along the diagonal of each of the triangles and trim.

5. Now cut the FQ for the thick strips into three 3" wide strips (22" long) and four 2" wide strips (22" long).

6. Lay out all eight triangles as desired for the final flag and sew 2" X 22" strips the bottom triangle of each pair.

7. Cut out a newspaper template 13 1/2" X 10" which will be used to line up each pair of triangles. Put the bottom triangle on the newspaper, lining it up with the edges of the paper. Part of the triangle will overhang the template.

8. Lay the top triangle of the pair on the newspaper, again lining it up with the edges of the paper.

9. Pick a point along the edges where both triangles meet and mark it with a pin or pencil mark on each triangle. Here I marked a point on the white skinny sashing which met with a line in the pattern of the fabric.

10. Flip the top fabric and pin the two triangles together at this mark.

11. Pin along the whole seam.

12. Sew along the seam and trim. Repeat for all four triangle sections.

13. Sew 1" neutral skinny strips along the left side of each triangle section going on the right of the flag and along the right side of each triangle section going on the left of the flag. Press and trim. Then sew 1" neutral skinny strips along the top of each triangle section going on the bottom of the flag and along the bottom of each triangle section going on the top of the flag. Press and trim.

14. Sew 3" X 22" pieces of fabric from the second FQ along the bottom of each of the triangle sections going on the top of the flag. Press and trim off the excess fabric. Set one of these spare pieces of fabric to one side as you will need it in step 16.

15. Sew each of these triangle sections to the corresponding triangle section going on the bottom half of the flag.

16. Sew one of the spare pieces of 3" wide fabric which you trimmed off at step 14 to the end of the remaining 22" X 3" piece of fabric and sew this to one half of the flag. Press and trim.

17. Sew the two halves together. TOP TIP: take time to line the two halves up. Start off by sewing just the middle part of this seam with a long stitch to see if you have lined up the two halves properly before sewing the whole seam. The flag looks SO much better if you take a little time over this step.

And VOILA, you have one Double Fat Jack. Add more sashing, make a few and make them into a quilt or just make one mini quilt. Hang from the badminton net in your garden just as the sun is setting on the Eve of the Royal Wedding.

Not terribly patriotic in a flag waving way but I feel oddly drawn to this project - perhaps because the fabric is too gorgeous to resist! Would also have to make a Scottish Saltire - can't deny my roots!

Holy crap, Jack, that's involved! Thanks for explaining that so well Lynne. I couldn't have figured that out, I don't think. I totally want to make one...but i still have my Christmas bib to finish up.

Hi Lynne...I have been looking.....searching...lurking....for how to do this block for a couple of days...so so happy to find your fabulous tutorial...thanks so much....LindaB...ps..now I have to find the time to try it.

oops just been making the flag and my first part has turned out about 11 inches square :((( wont fit the template,bottom right is ok but when i put the top left to it it is nowhere near the size what have i done any ideas !!! great tutoirial if i can get it right

Fabulous tutorial = I am making a baby quilt for English couple living in New York, front is a traditional William Morris type quilt but I think your Union Jack would make a fabulous backing, then it would be effectively two sided!

Thank you for the tutorial! I am making a baby quilt for a friend who is married to a man from GB, and she wants to do a "London" themed nursery, but only with gray, navy, and white, no red! I am making four of these Union Jacks and sashing them, and minky dot for the backing. I am using Dear Stella's - Mayfair Town and Country. It is turning out lovely. Thank you so much.

Hi! I finished the Double Fat Jack Quilt using your tutorial about midnight on Sunday :) I am so excited and hopeful that my friend and her husband love it! I posted pics in the flickr group you set up. I went with gray/black flannel for the backing with bikes on it because the baby's dad is a professional cyclist and I thought that might be a fun touch. Thank you again for the tutorial it saved the day, when I couldn't figure out how to make a London themed quilt without red!